He said that at around 2.30pm, “It seemed to me as if someone had opened a door and a really large number of fans all arrived at the same time and I ended up being pushed back towards the turnstile wall".

He said the strategy to deal with the crowd was not communicated to him.

“I couldn't do anything, effectively. Whatever I'd been doing prior to 2.30pm, in terms of trying to organise queues or to monitor fans, then I became totally ineffective.

“I'm not the tallest or the largest chap and I ended up in that corner with all the supporters up to my chest,” he said.

Mr Huckstepp said he didn’t have a radio to communicate with other officers. He said he wasn’t concerned for his safety. "I felt more embarrassed that I was ineffective and not helping the situation.”

He said supporters apologised to him saying they could not help the pressure, because it was coming from behind them. He said they were embarrassed too.

2.24pm - fans walk down Leppings Lane towards the entrance to the turnstiles

In a handwritten statement after the event, he said he endorsed the decision at the time to open Gate C.

He wrote “The people that were up near the turnstiles must have been in discomfort for 10, 15 minutes, and there was a serious risk of a serious injury. I fully support the decision to open the gates.”

Pete Weatherby, on behalf of 22 of the bereaved families asked if it was right that he didn’t make a pocket notebook entry on Hillsborough.

Mr Huckstepp said he thinks he may have done but can't be sure. It hasn't turned up.

He was asked to write a statement several days later on plain paper.

Mr Weatherby asked why his first contemporaneous note was several days later.

Mr Huckstepp accepted that days later you can lose detail.

“Is it not the case that you were told not to make a proper contemporaneous note of what happened?" said Mr Weatherby.

Mr Huckstepp replied: “I do have a recollection that we were told not to put something in our notebooks and I suspect I went against that.”

He admitted that it "looks unusual now" and "probably seemed unusual at the time" that these handwritten statements on plain paper were not dated and signed.

"That is unusual why I wouldn't date it. It doesn't seem usual practice for a police officer,” he said.

Another officer on duty during the disaster believed some of the crowd didn’t want to be controlled.

Graham Duffy told John Beggs QC, representing former chief superintendent David Duckenfield and match commanders Roger Marshall and Roger Greenwood: “The people in my immediate vicinity were very well behaved”, but agreed with Mr Beggs that they “suffered from the behaviour of those coming from the rear”.

Mr Beggs said: "The short point is, there was an element of this crowd that didn't want to be controlled?”